Exceptionally, disc drill (opens in a new tab) is a photo restoration tool that debuted on macOS before moving to Windows – it’s more common for high-performance software to take the trip in the opposite direction.
Regardless of the format, however, there’s a lot to like about Disk Drill, from support for huge formats and files to smartphone support and plenty of options for advanced photo recovery.
We have plenty of software and productivity help elsewhere, including our guide to best data recovery services and expert advice on how to save your photos.
Disk Drill: Plans and Pricing
- Not the cheapest, but plenty of deals and affordable lifetime upgrades sweeten the deal
If you download the free version of Disk Drill, you can recover up to 500MB of photographs and use Recovery Vault to protect key files with byte-level backups. The free version of the application also allows users to see previews of recovered images. It’s a good list of features for anyone looking to recover and protect images, although the file limit means it’s better suited to casual users.
The jump to Disk Drill Pro is pretty steep thanks to an $89 / £98.09 price tag, but you get a lot for your money: in addition to unlimited photo and data recovery, you can save the app simultaneously on three different systems. Upgrading to Pro means you can use all of the app’s recovery methods, including quick and deep scan, algorithmic smart scans, and lost partition searches.
We also recommend paying extra to get lifetime upgrades for your Pro version as well – this will keep your software updated in the long run, which is important if you want to use Disk Drill professionally.
Professional users can also consider the Enterprise edition of Disk Drill. This upgrade costs $499 / £549.94 with an additional $99 / £109.10 if you want lifetime updates, but you get ten users, unlimited activations and technical support priority. This is great value if the application is to be installed on many machines for several years.
Disk Drill also offers other incentives to help soften the blow of those high upfront costs. More often than not, you’ll get both Windows and macOS versions of the app included with your purchase, which is handy if you’re switching between the two platforms.
There are deals elsewhere too: if you’re upgrading from an older version or want to switch from another photo recovery service, Disk Drill is typically 50% cheaper, and educational institutions, government agencies and non-profit organizations receive a 20% discount.
Disc drill: features
- A wide range of features without missing too much, although some apps have broader file support
Disk Drill’s scanning software is immediately impressive. Run a scan and the app will show you how many files it found in different key categories, including photos and videos, and you can see which files the app found before the scan finished – you can So start recovering photos while the app keeps running in the background.
Users can see unlimited previews of images found by the application, and Disk Drill will estimate the chances of successfully recovering each file using a simple traffic light color coding system. Its main results section also details file size, type, and location, and users can filter results by file size, restore chances, and file type. This is ideal if you want to find specific files from a large selection of scan results.
Disk Drill’s scans aren’t the fastest, but they are some of the most thorough. Photographers will also appreciate some of the app’s more advanced features. It supports RAW photo and video recovery, a feature that is often not available in competing apps. And, on a purely visual level, this app looks great – its slick, minimal, and clean UI is a clear hallmark of its macOS origins.
Disk Drill users also benefit from the Recovery Vault, which protects specific files and folders from future deletion and monitors their last locations – combined with the best photo storage and sharing sites, you can ensure that your important photos will never be lost. Error also uses byte-level backups, so you can be sure that the integrity of your files will remain intact.
Elsewhere, Disk Drill supports over 300 file types and can recover photos from a wide range of sources, including conventional devices such as hard drives and SSDs, digital cameras, SD cards and USB sticks. Beyond that, photographers can benefit from support for SDHC, SDXC, microSD and even CF cards. It also works with external hard drives and SSDs.
Disk Drill can recover data from unformatted partitions and drives, and you can mount your scan results to a new disk to easily move files.
If you are using this app on macOS devices, you can also recover photos and other files from Android and iOS hardware. Fortunately, the macOS version of this software also supports Apple devices based on M1 and T1.
Disk Drill has plenty of features to keep photographers happy, though it’s certainly not perfect. There’s no portable version, so you can’t keep Disk Drill handy on an external drive for file restoration in the field. Disk Drill does not support Linux and there is no phone support. And although Disk Drill can recover data from RAID arrays, it cannot rebuild them.
Disk Drill: Final Verdict
Disk Drill is made by a company called CleverFiles, and we can only agree with that name – this photo recovery tool has an impressive array of features that can help users save media from almost all file systems and devices.
It is a great option for Mac users, works well on Windows and can also recover data from Android and iOS hardware if you are macOS based.
It’s never going to be the cheapest option, but Disk Drill ticks the right boxes for powerful and versatile photo recovery on a number of different operating systems. If you want an adaptable photo restoration tool, Disk Drill should be at the top of your list.
Disk Drill: Dashboard
| Packages and prices | Not cheap, but with good plans and packages | 4 |
| Features | Packed with features and fair file support | 4 |
| Globally | Feature-rich and efficient to use, but not a budget option | 4 |
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